Willing For You
by Believe4Ever
Summary: People really don't understand what Gus would be willing to do for his best friend.


People know for a fact that Shawn would be willing to do anything for Gus. They know that he would face up to horrors from children's nightmares, break the law, sneak around. Heck, he would even take a bullet for Gus, if he had to. But what people don't really understand is just what Gus would do for Shawn.

Which is exactly what he had to prove one Tuesday morning.

It was quiet and peaceful that morning, until a blaring alarm jerked the African American man from his blissful slumbers back into the rundown boredom of reality. That is, until he got a phone call from Shawn, saying that they had a case. Then adrenaline rushed through Gus's body, giving him more alertness than any amount of caffeine could ever hope to give.

It was often that people think of him as cowardly, since he would usually back down from any confrontation with an enemy. Well, it did scare him. Who wouldn't be scared of someone pointing a gun at your forehead and saying "Try to stop me and I kill you"? But, though he'd hate to admit it, he secretly longed for cases like this. Not only did it mean that he and his best friend got to spend the day together like old times, but it also meant that he got to help people. And got a reasonably generous paycheck to go along with it.

Shawn had told Gus about the case. It was something to do with some smugglers trying to sneak in some illegal substances. It was a pretty simple case for them to take and he knew that the other good cases were probably being occupied by Lassiter or some other higher ranking officer.

After Gus had gotten dressed and went through his morning routine of skin care and oral hygiene, he got into his company car—which Shawn had annoyingly nicknamed "The Blueberry"—and drove off to pick up his friend. He was always worried that the child-like man would get into a crash on his motorcycle. Though he was hard to put up with, Gus loved him to death. Shawn was like the brother Gus never had.

"Gus!" Shawn greeted with his usual cheerful tone as he slipped into the passenger seat. "Nice to see you, buddy! I already got a good lead on our case."

"Already? Shawn, what could you possibly have?" Gus asked with his surprise obvious. He pulled away from Shawn's house and started toward the police station.

"No, we have to go out to Lenny's Storage Area!"

"What? Why would we go there?"

"That's where the smugglers are going to be!"

"What?! Shawn, how do you know this?!"

"All right, so I might've done a little investigating without you last night . . ."

"You left me out?"

"Well I had tried to invite you but you said something about a rerun of some soap opera."

"_Love is More than Flowers _is not 'some soap opera', Shawn! It's the best television drama on ABC this year!"

Shawn only scoffed and looked out the window, knee shaking with excitement.

"Why are you so giddy?" Gus grumbled, turning off toward Lenny's.

"Because we're going to be taking down some smugglers this time! Exciting, isn't it? Not a thief, or a murderer, but smugglers!"

"I can't believe you're excited." His friend only grinned. "You told Juliet and Lassiter about this, right?"

"Yeah but I think we're going to get there first."

"Good. Then we can wait for them."

"What? No! We're going in there so we can get the glory!"

Gus glanced over and gave his friend a 'are you serious?' look. "Shawn, you can't be—"

"I am serious! It'll be fine. We won't confront the guys. We'll just scope out the area."

The pharmacist only groaned as they pulled up to the warehouse. Shawn jumped out with his usual jolly step and Gus pulled himself out of the car.

There was that adrenaline again.

Gus could hear the blood pumping through his head and his heartbeat blasted in his ears. He could barely hear Shawn as his friend led him into the warehouse. They were instantly met with the loud screaming of deep gruff voices.

"What do you mean it's gone? How could five grand be _gone?!_"

"Sorry, boss, but someone must've stolen it! We left it right 'ere, right in 'ere."

There was the quiet sound of sorting through what sounded like packing peanuts as the duo crept behind some stacked crates, looking for a good view of their criminals without being spotted.

"You incompetent fools!" a hysterical voice shrieked, followed by the sound of two gunshots. Two shrieks.

"That guy's got a gun!" Gus hissed to Shawn, his alarm apparent in his voice.

"Calm down, Jules and Lassie should be here any second!" Shawn whispered back, peeking over a crate. He gave a gasp and ducked as a bullet whizzed past and impaled the wall.

The two gave each other a freaked out look which was apparent of what it meant: "RUN!"

The two were scrambling to get away and they had just rounded some crates—Shawn running just slightly in front of Gus—when the pharmacist spotted the criminal pointing a gun straight at them.

"SHAWN!" Gus screamed, grabbing his friend's arm and jerking him back. The consultant swiveled around on his heel until he ended up stumbling behind Gus. That's when the criminal fired off his gun.

For a moment, Gus didn't feel anything. He couldn't hear anything, either, except for the loud, shrill shrieking in his ears. It took him a moment to realize it was Shawn screaming his name. That's when the pain sunk in and he fell to the ground.

Gus was aware that there were more gunshots, but since Shawn wasn't looking up and was instead focusing on him, on Gus, the pharmacist assumed that Juliet and Lassiter had arrived.

"Gus! Come on, buddy, stay with me!" Shawn's voice was frantic. Gus rarely heard panic enter his friend's voice, even in times of crisis. He'd always laugh it off with a joke.

"Shawn . . .?" Gus mumbled. He didn't know why it sounded like a question. He could see his friend in front of him.

"That's right; I'm right here, buddy." Shawn gripped his friend's hand tightly.

"Spencer!" There was Lassiter's voice. "Didn't we tell you to not go in?!"

Shawn looked up toward the voice. "Shut up Lassie!" Was it Gus's imagination, or did Shawn's voice quivering? Verge of tears? No, Gus couldn't have been hurt that bad. Sure, it was painful, but he didn't feel like death was surrounding him.

"Shawn?" Yes, that's Juliet. It took a moment but they both came into Gus's view. "Oh my God!"

"One of you call an ambulance!" Shawn pleaded. Wait, pleaded? Why was he pleading? He shouldn't sound so upset, right?

"Shawn . . ." Gus murmured.

"Yeah, buddy?" Shawn answered, turning his attention back to his friend. His best friend. Gus noted that a couple tears were trickling down his friend's face.

"You're not hurt . . . right . . .?"

"No, I'm fine. Thanks buddy . . ."

"You're gonna owe me for this . . ."

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna owe you big time . . . I owe you my life!"

Gus grinned the slightest bit. He could use that, later on. Make _Shawn _pay the rent instead of him.

"You're going to be all right, okay?"

"I know I will, Shawn . . . If I left, who'd pay the bills . . .?"

Shawn gave a small laugh. "That's right. I'm incompetent . . . I need you with me, no matter what."

Gus smiled. "I still have some favors to cash in, too."

The two friends grinned at each other and for a moment in time, it was like two friends who were sharing an inside joke.

"Ambulance is one their way," Juliet informed them.

"Good," Shawn mumbled, not looking away from Gus.

"Hey Shawn . . .?"

"Yeah?"

"Where was I shot?"

The consultant blinked and looked down, searching for the wound. He almost gave out a laugh. "Just your shoulder, buddy. You're not bleeding that bad."

"Didn't think so . . . So quit crying."

Now Shawn actually did laugh, and wiped his eyes. "You scared me to death."

"Who's the one bleeding, here?"

Shawn only snickered. "Don't do that again."

"All right. I'll use your body as a shield next time."

"Like when we were kids?"

"Like when we were kids . . ."

They both smiled wide, remembering that distant day. As the paramedics came in, they both knew everything would be okay. Just like that day.

()()()

_"You ready for this?" a twelve year old Gus fearfully asked the equally young Shawn._

_"Oh, yeah," Shawn answered with a toothy grin. They both turned their attention back to the pair of kids across the street, armed with paintball guns._

_"You're gonna pay for making my sister cry, Spencer!" the one on the left called, pointing the gun at them._

_"Just try!" Shawn demanded, puffing out his chest._

_"Oh, we will!" the other one cried. "But first, we'll take out your reinforcements!"_

_That's when they both pointed their guns at Gus. The young boy shrieked and instantly pulled Shawn in front of him, just as they fired. Two red splatters appeared on Shawn's unprotected chest and he gave out a shrill scream as he fell down to the ground._

_"I've been shot!" he screamed, rolling around on the ground in agony. "I've been shot!"_

_The two boys looked at each other with a mixture of fear of what the boy's screams would lure and satisfaction that they ended up doing what they wanted anyhow. They both took off running._

_Gus kneeled down next to Shawn just as Henry Spencer rushed out of the house._

_"Shawn, what are you—" Suddenly the adult froze, seeing the red dripping down his son's chest and his son's screams about being shot. "Gus! Stay right there, I'll be right back!"_

_Gus watched as Shawn's father scrambled back into the house, yelling something about 911. The boy looked back down at his friend, who had stopped screaming and was just lying there, looking up so that their eyes met._

_"Your dad is going to kill you when he finds out you were just shot by a paintball gun," Gus chided._

_"I know. But it's fun to watch him flip for now."_

_The two boys grinned and started laughing while the ambulance sirens could be heard in the distance._

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed this! This was a lot of fun to write. I really hope you'll review as this is my first Psych fan fiction. I'd been reading a lot of tragedies, mostly deathfics, of Psych when I decided to write this, so I wasn't sure if I wanted it to end with Gus dying or not. But I decided against it and made it a cute little story instead. Please review!**


End file.
